For body development, we’ll work on coordination with balance work, cartwheels, and back rolls. For motor development we’ll work on postural response with ball pass, kick the pin, balance beam, and walk the ball.

MATHEMATICS

By the time our children are ready to enter the world of mathematics, they have worked extensively in areas such as practical life, sensorial, and language, where they have refined their sense of order, concentration, coordination, and independence. For example, when the child is sweeping or pouring beans in exercises of practical life, he is working on three basic mathematical skills – exactness, calculation, and repetition. The smelling bottles develop mental analysis and an awareness of something that cannot be seen or touched but that is nevertheless real. When the child works with the knobbed cylinders, she is learning gradation. The color tablets and sound boxes develop discrimination of similar objects. The red rods develop a sense of ideal dimensions, and the geometric solids and geometric cabinet develop a sense of ideal forms. The innocent binomial cube is an introduction of (a+b)2 and the more complex trinomial cube is (a+b+c)3. Math is the science of sciences and the most abstract science of all. When a child is around 3 1⁄2, he becomes interested in comparing from his foundation in the sensorial material. Dr. Montessori calls this the “awaking of the mathematical mind”. When this sense is well developed, the directress begins introducing math.

Materials such as the number rods and the spindle boxes continue the sensorial processes of graded and sequenced series, and at the same time both mathematical quantities and numerical symbols can be introduced. Through the decimal system with the golden bead material, a child learns the transition from concrete to abstract, the goal being internalization of the concepts of mathematics. The child develops a growing perception of abstraction, coming to understand ‘one’ or ‘unit’. This is called the “method of variables”. Ultimately, the child refines precision, logic, and an ordered mind. You’ll begin seeing papers of arithmetic exercises. At this point, the child is still dependent on the equipment provided at the school, but imperceptibly your child will begin to internalize mathematical formulas like 3×2 and, when it’s introduced in fourth grade, will think everybody knows that.

If you want a quick study of more about Montessori mathematical material, ask for a set of our math lesson descriptions or study them from our website (www.monessorimorningglory.com). Not only will these describe for you the specific materials we use to teach the children, the lesson descriptions also tell you things you can do at home to capitalize on your child’s increasing interest in mathematical concepts.

Coming Up

Value for the Week – Pioneers is a really interesting week for our children. They’ll be learning why people moved into the frontier and how they moved. We’ll be encouraging them to think about what it might have been like to live in those times. The value we’ll be teaching for the week is self-reliance and how it means to have confidence in your own ability and in your own judgment. Pioneers had to be self-reliant because they were the only people around. You might want to encourage your child to verbalize his own thoughts.

Conferences – The time is coming when we’ll be sitting together to focus on the little one that is so important to us. Your child’s teacher (including infants) has been preparing to share your child’s progress. You might want to begin a list of things you’ve been wondering about.

Parents Meeting – We are having an impromptu parents meeting at 5pm on Monday February 26, to express ideas, suggestions and resolutions for our school.

Name Badges – We are doing away with our dress code of khaki and white, you can now identify a MMGS team member by their name badge which displays our school logo and their name.

CLASSROOM NEWS

Together Maxwell and Alexis worked with the nesting cups, after separating them they stacked some of the cups after their tall structure was assembled they both joyfull clapped their hands said “yay.” The nest cups help toddlers practice problem-solving skills, and also help to improve fine motor and language skills